Content Catchup: 2015’s Biggest Buzzwords, the CES Trends You Need to Know, and More Must-Reads

Speaking of horrible buzzwords, I broke down the 10 that are going to dominate your year:

Yes, content marketing is about telling stories, building relationships, and growing your audience, but it’s also about using so many buzzwords that you wonder what kind of monster you’ve become.

This existential alarm is all part of the job. The important thing is to be conscious of the horrible buzzspeak that’s spewing out of your mouth, lest you find yourself one day on stage wearing an orange jumpsuit and telling everyone about the value-adding revolution in conversation marketing.

Here are 10 content marketing buzzwords to watch out for the rest of the year. Some are very new; others have been lurking around for a couple years but are now primed to blow up. Regardless, these words are poised to sneak into your meeting rooms, board rooms, pitches, brainstorms, and even your brain, like the Yeerks in Animorphs. Except in this case, there will be no magical teenager turning into a lion to save you. Read it.

Keeping with the buzzwords theme, “culture of content” is one of the 10 that made my list. But nonetheless, it’s a crucial thing to create if you want to succeed as a brand publisher, Amanda Walgrove writes:

Anyone can produce a few pieces of content, but if brands want to succeed as publishers long-term, their commitment to storytelling has to start with their company’s culture.

The question is: How do you accomplish that?

Altimeter’s new best practices report, “A Culture of Content,” written by Rebecca Lieb and Jessica Groopman, provides a framework for how organizations of any size can establish, evangelize, and foster a culture of content. Let’s take a look at the most important takeaways. Read it.

What can a surfing pig teach you about content marketing? Quite a lot, it turns out. At least if you’re Contently co-founder Shane Snow:

What makes content marketing different (better) than just marketing is the former pulls you in—”shows”—through stories, while the latter pushes information into your face. This is what GoPro did with Kama, and the story of, yes, a surfing pig, made me fall in love with the product—after I’d seen and ignored “buy a GoPro” ads for for years. Read it.

And finally, to end the week, a very intimate look into the inner workings of our content team, and what happens when we debate a hated term like “snackable content.” Things get pretty weird. Read it. And enjoy the long MLK weekend. We’ll see you Tuesday.